To Be Continued

Tens of thousands of people protested in the eastern city of Kolkata in West Bengal this week when doctors resumed a strike and called for new demonstrations over the rape and murder of a female colleague at a state-run hospital in August, Agence France-Presse reported.

On Tuesday night, doctors and other protesters from various Indian cities marched through the streets of the city. They disbanded Wednesday morning.

The medical practitioners said they restarted their strike after officials failed to fulfill their demands for improved hospital safety, including better lighting and security cameras.

The demonstrations are set to continue, organizers said, with one plan being to use the upcoming Durga Puja festival, one of the city’s largest annual religious celebrations, as a platform to raise awareness about violence against women.

The renewed protests came two months after the rape and murder of a 31-year-old female doctor, a crime that sparked a series of demonstrations across India protesting violence against women and inadequate safety measures.

The weeks-long demonstrations saw numerous doctors walk off their jobs. The unrest prompted India’s supreme court to create a hospital safety task force, with judges urging the state government to implement safety measures by Oct. 15 to meet the doctors’ demands, Al Jazeera wrote.

So far, authorities have detained one male suspect in the murder case, but the West Bengal government has faced criticism for its handling of the investigation. As a result, Kolkata’s police chief and top health ministry officials were fired, while top hospital officials are under investigation for corruption, Deutsche Welle reported.

Observers noted the recent protests echoed the widespread outrage that followed the 2012 Delhi gang rape case, which led to the death of a 23-year-old student. That attack resulted in weeks of demonstrations, tougher laws for rape, and national soul-searching regarding violence against women.